2. There are 22 nations around the world that have made voting mandatory for its citizens, often starting at age 18. Several of these countries are in Latin America with a handful allowing citizens to age out of compulsory voting by as early as age 65. In Australia, failure to vote can result in a $20 fine.

6. France has the most number of time zones in the world. It has 12 time zones ranging from UTC-10 to UTC+12. This unusual span is due to France’s scattered national territories. France is followed by USA and Russia with 11 time zones each, the UK with 9 and Australia with 8.

India has only one time zone, the Indian Standard Time (IST), which runs 5 hours and 30 minutes behind UTC. This may change soon to 6 if the proposal before the union government is accepted.

8. China tops the list of countries with most borders. China has 16 neighbouring countries if both of China’s special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau are included. Russia comes next with 14 neighbours; Brazil with 10; Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany and Sudan with 9 each and Austria, France and Turkey with 8 each.

9. With 836 languages Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country on the planet. Indonesia comes second with 707 languages. Nigeria, India and the United States follow with 529, 454 and 420 spoken languages respectively.

10. Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey are transcontinental countries with territory in both Europe and Asia.

Dark Blue: Contiguous transcontinental countries.

Blue: Non-contiguous transcontinental countries.

Light Blue: Countries whose transcontinental status depends on either the legal status of their claims or the definition of continental boundaries used.